1000+ images about 02 - From Russia with Love - 1963 on Pinterest | Daniela bianchi, Sean connery and Lotte lenya Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas 02 - From Russia with Love - 1963 James Bond: Sean Connery Bond Girl: Tatiana Romanova Director: Terence Young Running Time: 115 Minutes Synopsis: When MI6 gets a chance to get their hands on a Lektor decoder, Bond is sent to Turkey to seduce the beautiful Tatiana, and bring back the machine. With the help of Kerim Bey, Bond escapes on the Orient Express, but might not make it off alive. 99 Pins79 Followers Cate Blanchett: please let me play a Bond villain - Telegraph James Bond Cate Blanchett: please let me play a Bond villain Cate Blanchett is so keen to play a Bond villain that she would be “there in a heartbeat” if the producers came calling.

Image 1 of 2 The full feature appears in the April issue of Harper's Bazaar UK, on sale Thursday 1st March Photo: ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI/HARPER'S BAZAAR UK Image 1 of 2 Cate Blanchett has also expressed an interest in portraying Diana, Princess of Wales on screen Photo: ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI/HARPER'S BAZAAR UK By Anita Singh , Showbusiness Editor 7:00AM GMT 29 Feb 2012 Follow The 43-year-old actress said she would be happy to play an unglamorous baddie, citing Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love (played by Lotte Lenya) as her favourite character. Asked by Harper’s Bazaar magazine if she would like to appear in the next James Bond film, Blanchett replied: “Oh, God, yes! I’d be there in a heartbeat. “I love Lotte Lenya. She had a club foot and a limp.

I’m not a purist in that way.” Blanchett also expressed an interest in portraying Diana, Princess of Wales on screen, although since the interview was carried out it has been announced that Naomi Watts will play the late princess in a forthcoming biopic . Her two latest projects are Terrence Malick films: Lawless, in which she appears with Ryan Gosling, and Knight of Cups, with Natalie Portman and Christian Bale. Related Articles The best Bond villains 21 Oct 2008 However, Blanchett said she was unsure how prominent her roles will be. “I can’t guarantee I’ll end up in [the final cut], as is his wont,” she said of the director’s methods. Famously, Adrien Brody believed he had the lead role in Malick’s The Thin Red Line, only to attend a screening and find his performance had been cut to two lines. Elsewhere in the interview, the Australian actress revealed that her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, has a novel line in gifts. “My husband went through a phase of giving me vacuum cleaners, sewing machines and Mixmasters,” she laughed. “It’s ironic.

He is encouraging me to develop a hobby, I think.” But she added: “An actress once advised me, ‘Make sure you do your own laundry - it will keep you honest’.” Blanchett lived in Britain from 1997-2006 until she and Upton moved to Australia, where they run the Sydney Theatre Company and raise their children Dashiell, 10, Roman, seven, and three-year-old Ignatius. She is returning this April to appear in Big and Small at the Barbican, as part of the London 2012 Festival . It is her first London theatre role in 13 years and one that has earned her great acclaim in Australia, where one critic hailed it as “the performance of Blanchett’s career”. :: The full interview is in the April issue of Harper’s Bazaar, on sale Thursday Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» Villains :: MI6 :: The Home Of James Bond 007 Organizations And Alliances: SPECTRE , SMERSH, KGB, Red Grant , Kronsteen "I have chosen you for an important assignment. A real labour of love. It's purpose is to give false information to the enemy.

If you complete it successfully, you will be promoted." Profile A shrewd and manic villain with a manipulative streak, Klebb is the perfect SPECTRE operative. Her role as head of SMERSH's assassination and torture department before her defection to SPECTRE gave the organisation connections to high-ranking Russian espionage experts, also allowing Klebb to operate under the radar and access to Russian funds, people and resources. Klebb will not tolerate failure and makes this clear from her brooding and battle-warn demeanor. Despite Klebb's small and short build, she had an authoritative and domineering look. Klebb was brutal and sadistic, taking pleasure in taunting and threatening people as was displayed in her interview with Tatiana Romanova where she manipulates the unwitting innocent cipher clerk into doing SPECTRE's bidding. Scheme After James Bond outwitted the extortion plot of Dr No mission, Klebb and her fellow SPECTRE operatives are out to shame the British Security Service.

With a plan concocted by the chess master and SPECTRE stagiest, Kronsteen , Klebb as SPECTRE Number 3 is charged with the execution of the scheme that will see the British Agent 007 dead and framed for the murder of Romanova. After convincing Romanova to play along with whatever Bond suggests and falsely alerting MI6 to the availability of a new LEKTOR decoder, Klebb sets a honey trap for 007. I've Been Expecting You When the mission goes sour, Klebb - not unused to facing off against foreign spies - catches up with Bond and Romanova, who assume themselves to be safely entrenched in Venice . In Bond's suite, Klebb disguises herself as a chambermaid and sneaks in to salvage her master plan. Headquarters As a high ranking SMERSH operative, Klebb has private offices in Istanbul, but when her SPECTRE duties require she visits the remote training facility for the terrorist known only as SPECTRE Island. Gadgets & Vehicles When attempting to deal with 007 herself, Rosa Klebb adopts some lethal footwear with a hidden, spring-loaded poison tipped blade embedded in the sole.

Later, the MI6 boffins salvaged this unique weapon and the gadget remains in the Quartermaster's archive . Dress Code Rarely seen out of her Russian Colonel's attire, Klebb dresses formally in smart tan suits embossed with the red and gold of the USSR. Goodbye Mr Bond In a scuffle with James Bond in his Venetian hotel room, Bond struggles to stay alive whilst Romanova shoots her former boss and saves a grateful 007. Biography Born in Vienna, Austria, Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer grew up in her hometown that was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her parents were of middle class Roman Catholic extraction and at age 17, Karoline left home to pursue a career on stage in Switzerland. In Zurich, she first performed on stage at the famous Schauspielhaus, where she took her nom de plum, Lotte Lenya. Her lucky break at this theatre company came from many hours of study of classical dance, singing and acting at one of Zurich's prominent drama schools. With her study out the way and high hopes of pursuing a professional career, Lenya moved to Berlin in 1921.

She auditioned for a role in the "Zaubernach", the first production to be scored by the now-famous composer, Kurt Weill. When she was invited to join the cast she regretfully declined as her great friend and voice coach who also auditioned for a role was not cast. Such loyalty and friendship is rarely seen in theatre and dramatics today. Some good would come out of her audition for the production: her rendezvous and later marriage to the incredible composer, Weill. "Training is useful, but there is no substitute for experience!" 1928 saw her on stage as Jenny in "The Threepenny Opera" and in 1931 Lenya was rewarded with her first on-screen role: the film based on the Weill-scored play. During this period she also recorded a number of vocal tracks composed by her husband. Despite the success of the Weill musical, the stage-star would not return to cinema for another 30 years. When war broke out in Germany, Lenya escaped the Nazi regime and worked for a period in France. Unfortunately from 1933 to 1937 she was estranged from her husband - but nevertheless continued to perform in his musicals.

The highlight of her time in France was undoubtedly her role in "The Seven Deadly Sins". In 1945 Lenya performed in the poorly received "Firebrand of Florence" and after the minimal success of this production, took a sabbatical from the stage to become reunited with her husband, Weill, with whom she remained until his death in 1950. During the war period and again following her husband's death, Lenya made a name for herself in New York, getting involved in Broadway shows such as "Barefoot in Athens". Lenya then married acclaimed editor George David. She returned to the silver screen in the early 1960's in the Vivien Leigh starrer, "The Roman Spring of Mr Stone" (1961) as well as the famous and manic villain, Rosa Klebb, in the second James Bond film "From Russia With Love" (1963). Lenya set up a foundation to look after the royalties from her late husbands compositions and musicals. She would later earn a role in the 1966 Kander and Ebb musical "Cabaret" as the composers insisted they were greatly inspired by her late husband.

On the death of her second husband, Lenya married Russell Detwiler in 1962. When he passed away at age 44, she married Richard Siemanowski in 1971. The pair remained together for just two years before they separated. Lenya passed away in 1981 in New York after suffering from cancer. She was laid to rest with her first husband in Havenstraw, New York. For Love of Film: James Bond – From Russia with Love | News from the Boston Becks News from the Boston Becks The life and times of Erik, Veronica and Thomas 15 October, 2015 For Love of Film: James Bond – From Russia with Love Nighthawk Nominations: Visual Effects, Sound Editing Bond Girl: Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana Romanova), Eunice Grayson (Sylvia Trench) Bond Villain: Lotte Lenya (Rosa Klebb), Robert Shaw (Grant), Vladek Sheybal (Kronsteen), ?

(Ernst Stavro Blofeld) Bond Support: Bernard Lee (M), Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny), Desmond Llewelyn (Q), Pedro Armendáriz (Ali Karim Bey) The Film: The order of the books had already been dispensed with. After all, because the rights to Casino Royale were tied up (it had been made into an episode of the television show Climax! in 1954) you couldn’t start at the beginning. Dr. No, the first film, had been the sixth Bond book (there are several parts of the book that reference earlier books in the series). So, at this point, when it was assured that there would be a second Bond film, the filmmakers had some leeway in terms of what book to adapt next. Except, they already knew what novel to do next because of something that had happened before filming had even begun on Dr. No. In 1961, Life Magazine had run an article detailing President Kennedy’s 10 favorite books and From Russia With Love was on the list. The producers knew what film they had to make next. Though it would not get a full U.S.

release until 1964, it was screened for Kennedy in the White House just before his fatal trip to Texas. This film begins some traditions, continues some on and ends one early one. The filmmakers had originally envisioned Sylvia Trench to be a recurring character, the girlfriend that Bond keeps leaving behind, but this would be her final appearance. That is contrasted against the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q, a role that he would continue to play through five Bonds and only finally would be replaced after he had died. He is not yet quite comic but he will soon begin to be the primary comic link through all the Bond films. This film continues the light banter between Bond and Moneypenny as well as a slightly more serious banter between Bond and M (there is also a humorous scene when Moneypenny is taking dictation for M and Bond is a bit too playful on that recording).

We get the initial scene of action before the credits role, this time with a man we are supposed to think is Bond, only to realize he is not, he is just a man the assassin is practicing on (an assassin played by Robert Shaw, which actually took me a while to figure out because he doesn’t speak until late in the film and because of his blonde hair). This film will give us the first great Bond villain and one of the best villain gadgets: Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb, complete with poison-tipped shoe, battling Bond in the conclusion. The plot is a MacGuffin, not only in terms of the film, but also in terms of the plot itself. Bond is being enticed to make off with a Russian cryptographic device (obviously they would need one, since Turing was dead) and to get a beautiful Russian blonde in the process. That’s just the plot enticement to get Bond moving. What he doesn’t know is that the Russians are just pawns in this – it’s actually SPECTRE who is trying to get revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No (that this movie references a previous Bond film is an idea that won’t stick around for long).

In the books, SMERSH, the Soviet spy organization is the primary antagonist, but the films moved away from the Cold War mentality (used ironically here, as not only Bond, but also Tatiana, the Bond girl, believe that SMERSH is the villain, only finding out their mistake late in the game) and gave a more politically neutral antagonist to go against Bond. That works quite well, partially because Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE isn’t seen in the film and the conceits (no face shown, stroking a cat) are just beginning and have a long way to go before they become clichés, and partially because Lotte Lenya is so creepy as Rosa Klebb. This film carries over both a weakness and a strength from Dr. No: the Bond girl. In this case the Bond girl is Daniela Bianchi, playing Tatiana Romanova, a Russian secretary supposedly in love with Bond from afar. Really she’s working for Klebb (and for SMERSH, she thinks, but actually for SPECTRE), but of course she does fall in love with Bond and goes off with him to England (and is never heard from again).

She is quite beautiful; I have never been partial to blondes, but of all the blonde Bond girls I think she is the most beautiful by far (she had been a Miss Universe runner-up and forget Andress in the bikini, I’ll take Bianchi any day). Unfortunately she’s really not an actress and so, like Andress, her voice is completely dubbed and in the end, I prefer a Bond girl who can be more useful and who can actually give a good performance. But overall, this shows what the series could do. It’s only the second film and already they’ve achieved greatness. Over 50 years later and this film still stands up as one of the best of the Bonds and one of the best of its kind. Share this: James Bond: 10 Most Deadly Bond Girls – Page 2 James Bond: 10 Most Deadly Bond Girls 10. Rosa Klebb - Lotte Lenya - From Russia With Love Blofeld refers to Rosa Klebb, a KGB double agent, as SPECTRE's number 3, and being such a high-ranking member of Bond's greatest foes pretty much gives away the fact that she is a highly deadly adversary.

Rosa's plan involved hiring Tatiana Romanova to pretend to fall in love with Bond and assist him in stealing the Lektor decoding device, before sending the skilled assassin Red Grant after Bond to kill him and retrieve the device. Her plans are foiled when Tatiana does in fact fall in love with Bond for real, before Bond manages to kill Red Grant with the help of his tear gas briefcase, but SPECTRE's number 2 is killed for the failure, with Klebb given one final chance to stop Bond. This final chance comes at a hotel in Venice, in which Klebb disguises herself as a maid and enters Bond's hotel room, at first grabbing the Lektor and then holding Bond at gunpoint after ordering Tatiana from the room, although as she raises the gun to kill Bond, Tatiana attacks her and Bond is able to pin Klebb to the wall with a chair, putting just enough distance between them to render the poisonous daggers in her shoes ineffective. As Bond holds Klebb in position against the wall, she is finally finished off by a gunshot from her own pistol, wielded by Tatiana.

Although she may not accomplish many deadly acts directly by herself, she does have the command of SPECTRE in her hands and is the sole reason Red Grant was hunting down Bond. This was the first time a Bond film gave a woman this kind of power so it is only right that Rosa Klebb has earned a place in this list. From Russia with Love (1963) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From Russia with Love ( 1963 ) Approved | James Bond willingly falls into an assassination ploy involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by SPECTRE.

Director: From $10.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 23 titles created 05 Mar 2013 a list of 24 images created 25 Jul 2014 a list of 23 titles created 10 Dec 2014 a list of 26 titles created 29 Dec 2015 a list of 26 titles created 3 months ago Title: From Russia with Love (1963) 7.5/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards » Videos A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program. Director: Terence Young Investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve. Director: Guy Hamilton James Bond heads to The Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.

Director: Terence Young Agent 007 and the Japanese secret service ninja force must find and stop the true culprit of a series of spacejackings before nuclear war is provoked. Director: Lewis Gilbert A diamond smuggling investigation leads James Bond to Las Vegas, where he uncovers an evil plot involving a rich business tycoon. Director: Guy Hamilton James Bond woos a mob boss's daughter and goes undercover to uncover the true reason for Blofeld's allergy research in the Swiss Alps that involves beautiful women from around the world. Director: Peter R. Hunt 007 is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organization and a reliable psychic tarot card reader. Director: Guy Hamilton James Bond investigates the hijacking of British and Russian submarines carrying nuclear warheads with the help of a KGB agent whose lover he killed. Director: Lewis Gilbert James Bond is led to believe that he is targeted by the world's most expensive assassin while he attempts to recover sensitive solar cell technology that is being sold to the highest bidder. Director: Guy Hamilton Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Director: John Glen James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and discovers a plot to commit global genocide. Director: Lewis Gilbert A fake Fabergé egg and a fellow agent's death lead James Bond to uncover an international jewel-smuggling operation, headed by the mysterious Octopussy, being used to disguise a nuclear attack on N.A.T.O. forces. Director: John Glen Edit Storyline James Bond 007 is on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as Lektor. Bond needs to find this machine, before the evil SPECTRE organization discovers it first. Whilst being romantically linked with Russian girl, Tatiana Romanova, Bond sneaks his way around Istanbul, whilst each SPECTRE agent tries to pick him off, including the over powering Donald 'Red' Grant and ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb who knows all the tricks in the books and even possesses an incredible poison tipped shoe! Written by simon_hrdng VIVA James Bond ! See more » Genres: 27 May 1964 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Bons baisers de Russie See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know?

Trivia Over 3,500 onlookers flocked to the Sirkeci Railway Station in Istanbul to watch the filming, which caused delays in shooting. As such, director Terence Young had stuntman Peter Perkins go and create a distraction by hanging upside down from a balcony nearby so filming could proceed. See more » Goofs In the boat chase, the director's waving hand can be seen reflected in the windshield of Bond's boat at several points. See more » Quotes Martine Beswick is mis-credited as "Martin Beswick" in opening credits. See more » Connections Followed by Thunderball (1965) See more » Soundtracks (Atlanta, GA) – See all my reviews This has to be my favorite bond. It mixes the best aspects of an action movie with the necessary espionage. Recent Bond attempts have moved away from the "spy-game" aspect and rely more on large explosions to dazzle the viewer. Kerem Bey, the Turkish spy leader, is as much a partner and foil for Bond as there ever was. Any movie with a gypsy fight, absurd helicopter assassination attempts, and boat chase has to be great. Also, Daniella Bianchi is my favorite Bond girl.

Her truceau is as sexy as it gets, though this is a subject every true Bond fan will debate about. The only objection is that they dubbed her voice into a more coarse, Russian accent. Overall, it is a wonderful movie that spans the globe and defeats SPECTRE. James Bond will return, but never with as much intrigue, beauty, and suspense as "From Russia With Love". 82 of 114 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes James Bond Declassified: File #2 – ‘From Russia With Love’ is still one of the best James Bond Declassified: File #2 – ‘From Russia With Love’ is still one of the best JAMES BOND 007 DECLASSIFIED File #2: “From Russia With Love” This series will trace the cinema history of James Bond, while also examining Ian Fleming’s original novels as source material and examining how faithful (or not) the films have been to his work. This edition of this column is dedicated to my father, who took me to see “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977, igniting my own lifelong relationship with the character.

He was an old-school fan, a Fleming fan, a Connery fan, and if I got any particular part of my fanboy DNA from him, it’s Eastwood and it’s Bond. Bond has been shared language for most of my life, and the same is true of my friendship with Scott Swan, who has been my Bond buddy since “The Living Daylights.” When you’ve had those Bond-nerd conversations, when you’ve talked about theme songs and title sequences and Bond girls and which bad guys are the best and all the things you talk about as Bond fans… that’s a very specific thing that’s shared. And like Batman, I notice that all Bond fans have their own Bond that they like, and I don’t just mean the actors that played the character. Each fan has what they consider “the” version in their head, the perfect definition of who Bond is, of what elements they want and like, and how the films should play.

Making a film in a series that has run for 50 years at this point is daunting if only because of the history one must confront, and here’s how I’ll decide if Sam Mendes and company pull it off with “Skyfall” this year: if my dad signs off, you get my thumbs up. Because my favorite Bond is his favorite Bond. That’s just how it works. Today’s his 72nd birthday, and he’s still the coolest Bond fan I’ve ever met. Directed by Terence Young Screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood (adaptation) Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman CHARACTERS / CAST Boothroyd / Desmond Llewelyn CREDITS SEQUENCE In every way the model of the rest of the series, “From Russia With Love” opens with the gun-barrel image, and then segues into what must have been a real mind-f**k for an audience when it was released. The scene features James Bond (Sean Connery once again) being stalked by Donald Grant, the otherworldly-looking Russian played by Robert Shaw, building to Shaw’s shocking bare-handed kill of our hero.

Of course, he’s revealed to simply be an agent disguised as Bond, part of Shaw’s training, but it’s a great way to kick off the second film in the series, and it shows that this time, they’re gunning for Bond personally. This isn’t like “Dr. No” where he ends up on the case by coincidence. This is a movie in which Bond is the target, and in three quick minutes, we see that And then we’re into what is the first “real” credits sequence in the series, with the credos projected over belly dancing bits and pieces. When “007” appears over a pair of shaking boobs, I think a tone is set for the title sequences for every single film afterwards, and it’s awfully hard to complain about what we get. I love the orchestral version of the theme song that plays over the credits, particularly the jazzy organ over the top of it. The whole thing is so stylish and so confident that it’s like they’re telling you “Okay, we’ve got it all figured out now, so sit back and get ready for us to rock your ass off.” Which is fair warning, because the film absolutely does.

THE FILM The first sequence in the film after the credits is set at a chess tournament in Venice, Italy, and I love the look and feel of these early Bond films. Ted Moore’s cinematography is once again rich and colorful, setting a very lush sense of style for the James Bond world. This has got to be the most opulent setting for a chess tournament ever. The winner of the tournament, Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), is summoned to the boat where Ernst Blofeld (glimpsed only in part and voiced by Anthony Dawson) is already discussing plans with Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), the number three agent for SPECTRE. His musings on the nature of Siamese Fighting Fish reveals his thinking about his own organization, and hints at the ego that will make him one of Bond’s greatest ongoing rivals. There are so many things in this film that have been parodied and borrowed and referenced over the years that it’s hard to look at it now without all of that crowding in. When you see the white cat that Blofeld is constantly petting, just try not to think of Dr. Evil’s obsession with Mr. Bigglesworth in the “Austin Powers” films.

When Blofeld and Rosa talk to each other as “Number One” and “Number Three,” I can’t help but think of “The Prisoner.” It’s just fascinating to watch and see how big a shadow this film has cast over pop culture in general. Kronsteen, Klebb, and Blofeld discuss their plan to steal a Lektor, a Russian cryptographic machine that they’re going to sell back to the Russians while using it to lure James Bond into a trap. They mention that they want revenge for him killing Dr. No, making this a direct sequel to the first film. I like that there was some continuity in the early movies. Robert Shaw is probably best known to audiences today for his work as Quint in “Jaws,” but he’s absolutely iconic here as Grant, the big giant freak that they turn loose on Bond. Seeing him shirtless, he is a side of beef here, gigantic and carved from wood. Each early scene with him just reinforces how hard it’s going to be for Bond once they finally clash. In this film, he’s Jaws. He’s the shark out there in the water, killing people one by one, working its way towards the hero. And he’s great at it.

Tatiana Romanova, who works for the Russians in Istanbul, is contacted by Klebb, who she believes is still part of Russia’s SMERSH, and Klebb lets her believe that, using her loyalty to the state to recruit her to the Lektor mission. Lotte Lenya makes Klebb into a weird little villain, squat and bug-eyed, with a mouth like a carp. She freaks me out, and that’s probably the point. It’s a full eighteen minutes before Bond finally appears in the film. In another nod to continuity, when we first see him, he’s laying some moves on Sylvia Trench, who also appeared in “Dr. No,” and Eunice Gayson plays her again. She is a perfect ’60s Bond girl, lovely and cultured and oh-so-British, and she seems like she’s interested in only one thing. There’s a gleefully Caveman mentality to the early films, and I wouldn’t change anything about that. I don’t need my ’60s spy movies to be politically correct for right now. They are a product of their times and so be it.

From the moment the hook is baited, Bond is sure it’s a trap, and so is M. Even so, that first glimpse of Tatiana Romanova is enough to intrigue Bond. He has a great briefing scene with Boothroyd, played here by Desmond Llewellyn but not yet nicknamed Q. I always enjoy these scenes because they give you a sneak preview of what to expect later in the film. The sniper rifle that Bond uses here is iconic, and my own father owned a replica of it when I was growing up. It wasn’t the greatest gun in the world in terms of aim and power, but there was an undeniable charge to assembling it before we went shooting at the range, just because it was so fun to pretend to be on a mission. Bond goes to Istanbul to start the fun, and from the moment he lands, there are spies following him and spies following them, and that great Bond theme like a heartbeat for the film, wrapping it all in that recognizable cool. Ali Kerim Bey is a great counterpart to Bond, and when Bond arrives, there’s a girl leaving, suggesting he enjoys his work the same way that Bond does. I love how Bey’s surround by his sons, all of them working for him.

Pedro Armendariz does a great job playing the character, and he makes for a hell of a tour guide, showing Bond around and explaining to him how open all the spying and counterspying is in the Istanbul culture. The first half-hour of the film, nothing really happens. But that’s the pleasure of it. This is spying as a game, as chess, explicitly promised and then played out. Grant’s shadowing Bond from the moment he lands, and we see the evidence of what he can do, of how cold and sadistic he is. We see the games being played with Bond’s hotel, and how he knows, and they know he knows, and there are bodies showing up, and Grant and Klebb are under the radar, playing everyone against each other. Great fun. And, uh, the Bond girls in this movie? Ka. Pow. When Nadja Regin attempts to seduce “AliKerimBeeeey,” purring at him, pouting at him, it’s shameless, and god bless the casting director. I love that the sequence ends with a sort of abstract psychedelic version of a bomb blast, and that big band Bond orchestral sting.

I think once John Barry had the notion of using the Bond “BA-DA duh, BAH-DAH duh, BAH-DA-DA-DA” as a rimshot after Bond does something badass or super cool, the series turns into something better and bigger than Fleming originally conceived. There’s something deeply satisfying about a Bond film when it works, and a big part of that is watching Bugs Bunny stroll through the movie, frustrating all the bad guys and never really breaking a sweat. That’s Bond as an archetype, and I love that he can look as impeccably stone cold perfect as Connery does in this film while doing anything. It’s the reason I don’t feel bad about admiring the Bond girls… Connery was cast to give the ladies equal time in the drool department. There are certain night scenes in the film where Connery’s tan is so deep and his color so different than the rest of the people in a scene that he almost looks like he’s in blackface, particularly during the trip to the gypsy camp.

Peter Hunt continued to refine the editing rhythm that made these early films feel so fresh and unique, with a propulsive sense of cutting motion into the scenes, a sort of urgency that’s built into the speed of what he’s doing, of how he accelerates scenes or lets them breathe. The Bond films, even these early ones, are always moving. These just weren’t the same sort of giant-budget affairs that later entries in the series were, and that’s sort of a case of being held hostage by success. In order to compete as events now, the Bond films have to be something different than what they were originally. This film made something like 80 million dollars in 1963, which is like half a billion dollars today. This was a big deal. I’d like to think that audiences recognized that there was something genuinely new going on in the film, a sort of wild raw pulp language being translated to film that seemed to push right up against standards at the time.

The girl fight in the gypsy camp is one hell of a left-turn for that film to take for a moment, and they let it go on for an awfully long time before erupting into the first big action scene in the film, and it’s very different than what a modern action scene would be like. This is brutal and the emphasis is on the stunt work, the live electricity of it all. There are some great falls, some great deaths, and in a great touch, James Bond really would have been dead at one point in this fight if not for Robert Shaw’s Grant, who is saving Bond for himself for later. I love that. I love knowing that Bond, who is very good, could have died here. He could have missed something. Makes it exciting. Bond makes a run for it with the ladies in the film, with the two girls in the gypsy camp and then Romanova right after that. Daniela Bianchi is a dish, and the whole plot of the film hinges on whether or not she can get Bond in bed.

There’s nothing coy about the seduction scene, and I like that Bond is playing a part, knows she’s playing a part, but within that, they’re both also being fairly overt about what they want and they’re taking real pleasure in it. And when Bond talks to Bey about it, it’s a flat-out joke to them. Of course it’s all a trap. Of course there’s a game being played. But… but… but look at her. Why not enjoy the moment? One of the funniest moments in the film is when we see M and Moneypenny and a group of military and government men all listening to a tape of Bond and Romanova talking on a boat, and she’s begging him to make love to her day and night. When Moneypenny continues eavesdropping even after she leaves the room, it’s a great touch. She’s got Bond’s number, and she loves it. I also like the way Grant continues to tighten the web, playing Bond, leading him to do exactly what they want, and Kerim Bey is part of it without realizing it, helping Bond but, in doing so, delivering him right to SPECTRE.

The actual set piece where they steal the Lektor is pretty great, including what I’m sure is the origin of a scene in “Last Crusade,” a wave of rats that sends Bond, Bey, and Romanova into a hasty retreat onboard the Orient Express, which is where a major chunk of the film takes place. As the train rolls out and we glimpse Grant onboard, closing a window, that’s a promise that things are going to hit the fan soon. Closer. Closer. When Bey dies, it’s the beginning of the endgame, Grant starting to chip away at Bond’s support system, stranding him on the train, where there’s no real escape. Bond’s busy playing house with Romanova, happily and understandably occupied, and Grant’s chipping away. Closer. Closer. And then comes Zagreb, and Grant finally comes face to face with Bond under the guise of Agent Nash, there to help Bond. He knows that Bey’s sons were supposed to send Bond someone from Station Y, and he knows the signals they use to identify each other, and he uses that to play with Bond a bit. He wants to test him. He wants to study him up close before he ends him.

Bond is the reason Grant was created, basically. Shaw’s very funny as Agent Nash, with his posh English accent. The game he’s playing with Bond is a dangerous one, and Grant seems to have the edge throughout. He drugs Romanova at dinner and gets her out of the way. And then, finally, after finally getting Bond to lower his guard, Grant strikes. Again, here’s an element that’s been borrowed and imitated and mocked, as Grant monologues a bit, revealing himself to Bond, gloating a bit as Bond puts it all together. “Oh, I don’t mind talking. I get a kick out of watching the great James Bond find out what a bloody fool he’s been making of himself.” Grant makes sure Bond knows he’s the one who saved his life at the gypsy camp. The whole verbal confrontation, which is a long, tense, beautifully performed sequence, is only a precursor to the moment where the fight breaks out. I love the fight. Robert Shaw versus Sean Connery in a train car, with no room to move, no room to really do much o anything, and somehow, it’s this epic gladiator collision of these two apes.

They beat the holy hell out of each other in close-quaters combat, and it feels like Bond really earns the escape. There’s nothing about Grant that makes it easy for Bond. And even once he escapes with Romanova, he’s still got to beat the first of his many helicopter-piloting opponents in the series. Blofeld returns to bump off Kronsteen for failing to kill Bond. He was the strategist, after all, behind all of Bond’s troubles. Blofeld tells Kelbb to get the job done, and she sends henchmen after Bond, bunches of them in boats, with an ingenious escape that allows Bond to delivers a groan of a one-liner, in the best tradition of the series. Connery could throw those lines away perfectly, and I think that was as important as the way he looked or his fighting. And as great as the fight with Grant is, the fight with Klebb is more of an awkward, creepy little flurry of violence and desperation. When Romanova makes the choice to kill Klebb instead of Bond, they earn their happy ending together.

Yes, Romanova was part of it, but she was the least guilty person out of the whole guilty bunch, so James Bond still feels good about putting it to her as the film ends. He even does the gentlemanly thing of getting rid of the film of the two of them together in their hotel, a SPECTRE trick she knew nothing about. Ending the film with Bond about to get his groove on is a mainstay of the series, and this is one of the classic ones, even if it is Sean Connery in front of a terrible rear projection Venice. THE TEASE The first credit after “The End” reads as follows, as the start of the full credits crawl: “Not Quite The End Ian Fleming Thriller ‘GOLDFINGER'” Overall, a pure pleasure. As good a spy movie as I’ve ever seen, focused on real espionage shenanigans from the ’50s and ’60s. Fleming knew what he was writing about, and this one drew largely on his text. Speaking of which… THE BOOK The fifth book in the series. One of the greats, in my opinion. Now… as to why it was filmed second, it’s simple.

Imagine George Bush, at the height of his public approval, said, “I like the fifth Harry Potter book the best,” and so Warner Bros decided to make it the sequel to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” instead of doing “Chamber Of Secrets.” JFK picked the book as an all-time favorite in an interview. This went into production in 1962, when Kennedy was still a rock star and very much alive. Easy choice for the producers. And then when it opened in the UK in late ’63, generating huge press and becoming a major hit, the build-up began, stoked by a limited New York engagement in the spring of ’64, and then finally getting a full release in the States in May. By that point, Kennedy was gone and the canonization had begun. What makes the movie an extra added bit of fun for people familiar with the Fleming is that in the film, Bond believes SMERSH is behind the trap that’s been laid for him, and when he finally meets Grant, he realizes it was SPECTRE, simply using SMERSH for cover. At this point in the book series, it made sense that SMERSH wanted Bond dead.

He’d defeated Le Chiffre, Mr. Big, Hugo Drax. He was a menace, chipping away at the very infrastructure of Russia’s intelligence community. So SMERSH was the bad guy. There’s no duplicity. SMERSH sets out to destroy him, and he figures it out. Here, he’s got it all figured out, and then he realizes it’s even deeper, and that’s a kick to the gut for him, just as it must have been for audiences who knew the book. It’s a bigger game here. The honey pot is the same trap it is in the film, and one thing i like is that they really were adapting the novels in these early films. By the time they got to films like “Moonraker,” they were using a title and nothing else. Character names. But they weren’t doing the books as actual stories anymore. Here, they did a pretty strong job of toning down what they had to, turning up what they could, and working to make the films their own special things. Fleming spends some serious time in the book sketching in Bond’s home life, something that the films really didn’t do at all.

The most significant difference is that Fleming finished his book on a cliffhanger. In the film, when Rosa Klebb poses as a maid to get into Bond’s room, she has a shoe with a knife-tip built in, and she tries to kick Bond to poison him. Romanova shoots her and kills her, so she doesn’t get the chance to kick him. In the book, however, she manages to kick him, even as she’s captured, and the book ends with Bond gasping for air, hitting the ground, the poison kicking in. Each of Fleming’s chapters is designed to push you directly into the next, and the end of the book is like the perfect example of his craft, designed to give him either an ending to the series or a dramatic kick into his next book. Overall, re-watching this film and re-reading this book just convinced me anew that Fleming was one of the great thriller writers, and adapting his work closely yields truly impressive results. Catch up with our entire “James Bond: Declassified” series: View All Critic Reviews (52) Audience Reviews for From Russia With Love Manages to build upon the strengths of it's predecessor (Dr.

No) while also laying down the seeds of the classic "Bond formula" (Opening theme song, mission briefs from M, gadgets, Bond girls). Connery continues to kill it as James Bond in this excellent Cold War-thriller that almost approaches the level of Hitchcock at times, especially in Bond's confrontation with Red Grant. Speaking of Red Grant, the villains are also better this time around. Both Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya turn in excellent and memorable performances. If I had to pick a drawback, it's that I found Tatiana to be a pretty dull character and didn't showcase much personality outside of being eye-candy. Christopher Heim Super Reviewer This film has everything that was great about the first bond film, and more. The plot is wiser, the characters have more to do, the action is much more developed, and the character-to-character dialogue scenes are some of the most intense scenes I have ever seen in a movie. This film does everything to perfection, and what I love so much about these films is how easily each cast member can work with each other. They all feel so comfortable.

I have no complaints about this film, besides a few characters that were brought up, but left out until then end of the film, but every movie can be poked at. "From Russia With Love" is a stunning Bond feature! KJ Proulx

Question: In which Bond film does Lotte Lenya play Rosa Klebbe
Answer: Russia